


electric poetry

by ohvictor



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, Multi, adoring partner yukishiro azuma, hisoka (sleeping), homare (resplendent), long-suffering witness takatoo tasuku, tsumugi and gai (also there)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26135242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohvictor/pseuds/ohvictor
Summary: Homare makes a special purchase that he hopes will inspire him to create new poetry. The rest of Winter Troupe looks on.
Relationships: Arisugawa Homare/Mikage Hisoka/Yukishiro Azuma
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	electric poetry

**Author's Note:**

> in may 2019 a friend replied to a tweet of mine and said, "homare roomba fic when". when asked for a prompt, they supplied: "'i have strapped a pen to this roomba to see what poetry it makes!' 'why.'" 
> 
> this is that fic.

The midday light filtering in through the windows is the perfect accent to Hisoka’s sleeping face, illuminating a crescent shape along the line of his jaw. As he breathes, slowly and evenly in sleep, the hair that covers one side of his face flutters minutely, like feathers rustling. Azuma wonders if he should be worried about Hisoka drooling on the sleeve of his sweater, but the sight of Hisoka pressed up against his side is too cute to disturb. Anyway, Azuma can just wash the sweater later.

On Azuma’s other side, Homare is equally captivating, curled up against Azuma’s shoulder with a book nestled in his lap. He’s an active reader, and his reactions flicker across his face like a TV screen; his eyes light up or go shuttered, his lips part with the slightest of sounds; his breathing speeds up at exciting parts. From this angle Azuma can’t see the cover of the book to learn the title, but judging from the formatting of the text, it’s prose. 

Azuma could sit like this and watch his partners absorbed in their trademark activities for hours, but he could _also_ nudge them to pay attention to him. He watches Homare read for another few minutes, until he reaches the end of a chapter, and then Azuma nuzzles his face into Homare’s hair, pressing a secret kiss behind his ear. He smells like lavender soap. 

“Ah,” Homare gasps, twisting around until he’s facing Azuma, “Azuma-san?”

Azuma smiles neatly. “What are you reading?”

Homare lights up. “Oh! It’s a collection of essays that Sakyo-san recommended to me. I’ve only read the first one, but the author is very entertaining!”

“Really? You’ll have to tell me about it when you finish—”

“Mail’s here,” Matsukawa interrupts, calling from down the hall, and sure enough, there’s the ensuing clatter of mail coming through the slot in the door. Hisoka doesn’t wake, but Homare instantly sits up, like a string was pulled on the back of his head. He untangles himself from Azuma, freeing himself to stand, and tiptoes off towards the entryway. 

Intrigued, Azuma eases Hisoka off of his other shoulder, repositioning him to lean against the arm of the sofa on Hisoka’s other side, and follows Homare to the entryway. A few other members of the company have gathered here as well, responding to the mail call. Sakyo picks up a couple of bills from the pile of envelopes, his nose wrinkling in irritation, and he strides back off towards the staircase without acknowledging Azuma’s little wave. Masumi grabs a large manila envelope with Tsuzuru’s name on it and trudges back towards the first floor rooms. Kazunari picks up a box emblazoned with the label of an online secondhand book retailer and whoops in excitement, and scampers off calling Muku’s name. 

There’s a letter with Tasuku’s name that Azuma picks up curiously only for it to be plucked from his fingers by Tasuku himself, giving Azuma a stern look. Gai nudges his way past the two of them to pick up a hand-wrapped package with a Zahran label, which he waves at Azuma with a smile. 

“This should have the perfume I ordered for you,” he says.

“Already?” Azuma eyes the box with interest. “Thank you again, Gai...”

The last box bears the logo of an expensive electronics company. And it’s this one that Homare scoops up and carries off immediately towards the stairs, with the air of someone carrying a precious object. Azuma hurries to catch up with him, slipping an arm around Homare’s waist once they fall into stride together. 

“What’s that?” he hums.

“You’ll see!” Homare’s making a beeline for his room. Azuma hears Tasuku and Gai on the stairwell behind them, and wonders if either of them are curious about Homare’s mysterious package too. When they reach the top of the stairs and Homare heads down the hall to his room, Azuma following, he hears Gai and Tasuku split off to their own rooms. That’s understandable; they both have new mail to view, after all.

Homare grabs a letter opener from his desk and makes quick work of the tape holding the box together. The cardboard unfurls in Homare’s hands like a flower, its flaps parting and laying flat with ease. Homare must have opened hundreds of packages before, Azuma thinks, sitting down in Homare’s desk chair to watch. Makes sense, for a famous author who has processed many shipments of books. 

Inside the shipping box is another box, this one more explanatory: the image on this box is of a cleaning robot, complete with a little glint of cleanliness and a friendly _iRobot_ logo.

“What is that,” comes Hisoka’s voice from the doorway. Azuma turns, his smile growing as he spots him. He holds his arms open, and Hisoka tips forward into the bedroom and folds himself tiredly into them. 

“A cleaning robot?” Azuma offers Homare. 

“Hm,” Homare answers, preoccupied with freeing the little robot from the box. 

“Did he tell you about this?” Azuma asks Hisoka. 

Hisoka gives him a dull look with his one visible eye. “...no. You’d know just as much as me. ‘S not like I have special roommate privileges.”

“Aha!” Homare cuts in, and Azuma looks up from ruffling Hisoka’s hair to see Homare holding the cleaning robot, a shiny black disc, and peeling protective film from the top. “It’s beautiful, no? Elegant?”

“What do you need a cleaning robot for.” It’s Tasuku’s voice, and Azuma spins to see Tasuku, Tsumugi, and Gai poking their heads in through the doorway. 

“Ah! Everyone is here to witness the birth of my latest project,” Homare effuses. “Even you, Leader...”

Tsumugi rubs the back of his head. “Yes, Tasuku told me there was something, er... Worth seeing.” Azuma, willing to bet Tasuku worded it quite differently, looks at Tasuku’s face just in time to catch Tasuku looking briefly mollified. 

On Tasuku’s other side, Gai looks puzzled. “Why did you buy a cleaning robot, Arisugawa?” 

“Inspiration!” Homare replies.

“Your room isn’t even that dirty,” Tasuku says, his tone heavy with the weight of his apparent suffering. “The only things you two drop on the floor are marshmallow bags and books. Cleaning robots can’t pick those up.”

“You have no imagination, Tasuku-kun,” Homare laments, complete with a melancholy shake of his head. Tasuku’s eyes narrow at the familiar argument, and Azuma has to fight the urge to laugh.

“How are you going to be inspired by the cleaning robot?” Tsumugi asks, diplomatic.

“I’m _so_ glad you asked!” Homare tucks the cleaning robot on his arm and moves to his desk, where he retrieves a pen and a generous piece of tape. “I’m going to tape a pen to this robot and see what poetry it makes!”

“ _Why_ ,” Tasuku says, now massaging his temples. 

“How innovative,” Azuma offers.

“...the pen won’t even reach anything it can write on,” Hisoka says. 

Homare is undeterred, as if the only feedback he heard was Azuma’s. “We’ll see, we’ll see, won’t we? Ah, a rhyme...! The robot is already working, no?”

“I think that’s just you,” Gai says.

“Not so!” Homare fastens the pen to the top of the robot carefully, his tongue stuck out in concentration (adorable). Then he sets the robot on the floor. “Now... Go forth!”

The robot doesn’t move.

“Um,” Tsumugi starts, and hesitates, his lips quivering. Azuma has the impression that he’s trying not to laugh. “Is it turned on?”

“Is it even charged,” Tasuku sighs.

“Hmm...” Homare crouches down and examines the robot at near eye level. “I wonder... Ah, there’s a button!”

“There might be a remote in the box,” Azuma offers. 

Hisoka detaches from Azuma’s side and bends down to retrieve the box. He pulls some discarded plastic wrap aside and then shows the remaining contents of the box to his troupemates.

“Remote,” Tsumugi nods, pointing.

“Charging stand,” Gai adds.

“Fascinating,” Homare says, “so it needs assistance... How disappointing, that it is not immediately ready to go... That’s all right! After traveling I, too, often require a rest and rejuvenation period...” He relieves Hisoka of the box and takes the charging dock out. There’s a cord folded up into a coil on the back, and Homare undoes the little tie around it and unspools the cord so he can plug it into the outlet by his desk. “Now, Hisoka-kun, you’ll have to be careful about your cat friends with this cord...”

“And the robot itself,” Azuma adds. 

Hisoka’s lips quirk into a faint smile. “...having the cat chase the robot around would be funny.”

“Hisoka-kun, no!!”

With bated breath (in some cases) and mounting exasperation (in others), the five of them watch Homare set the little robot on the charging pad. It lights up immediately (Homare flaps his hands in delight) and begins to display a battery symbol, with little bars blinking on and off. Tasuku snags the box from Homare’s slackened grasp and removes the user manual, which he pointedly consults. 

“It says it’ll need to charge two to three hours before use.”

Homare turns large, puppyish eyes to Tasuku. “Really... How disappointing.” He deflates, his hands lowering to rest at his sides, his shoulders hunching, and he gives the robot a little pat on its shiny dome. 

Tasuku sighs, his fingers finding a space on the bookshelf above Homare’s desk to slide the manual into. As one of MANKAI Company’s unofficial repairmen, he probably anticipates having to read it again. “Can’t you wait two to three hours?”

“Well...” Homare looks around at the floor in the room, and seems to brighten a little. “I suppose I could prepare its canvas...”

“Leave it to Homare-san to describe cleaning his room in a way that sounds beautiful,” Tsumugi murmurs, appropriately awed. Azuma is reminded of the expression Sakuya gets sometimes when Citron says something that’s so obviously a lie, and gets an urge to pinch Tsumugi’s cheeks, which he ignores. 

True to his word, Homare starts to move around the room, picking up objects from the floor, mostly stacks of books and discarded marshmallow bags as Tasuku had listed, and now that the action is over, the rest of Winter Troupe begins to filter out. Tsumugi and Tasuku lock eyes as they turn for the door, and then quickly look away from each other; Azuma watches Tsumugi bite down on his bottom lip so that he doesn’t laugh, and Tasuku looks pointedly at the ceiling. They’ll probably have a fond (Tsumugi) and tired (Tasuku) laugh about it in their room in a few minutes. Azuma is tempted to invite himself along, but Hisoka is cuddling closer to him the longer he stands there, perhaps wanting to resume his interrupted nap earlier. 

Gai, lingering in the doorway, meets Azuma’s gaze, and then looks down at Hisoka, the corners of his mouth turning up in a fond smile. He gives Azuma a little wave, and then departs, probably heading back downstairs. He likes watching Omi cook these days, and it’s getting close to dinnertime. In that case, maybe Azuma and Hisoka shouldn’t nap, but... If Azuma’s room is going to be empty, it’s almost a crime not to take advantage of the quiet. 

Azuma detaches from Hisoka for just a moment to cross the room and grab Homare’s hands, stopping him mid-stride. Homare turns, his hair swinging against his cheeks, and rewards Azuma with a big smile. 

“It’s good to see you so excited,” Azuma says. “I’ll be back to hear about the roomba once it’s charged, all right?”

“Of course,” Homare nods. “I’ll come get you, so don’t worry!”

“Good.” Azuma leans in and kisses him, feeling the hum of Homare’s energy as he enters his space. When Azuma pulls back, Homare chases him for a second kiss, and then lets him go, his lovely cheeks now stained pink.

When Azuma rejoins Hisoka at the door, Hisoka slips his hand into Azuma’s, curling their fingers together, and they walk out like that, closing the door to 205 carefully behind them to give Homare some privacy in his artistic process. Azuma’s room is just a few steps down the hall, and by the time Azuma shuts the door behind them, Hisoka is already curling up on Azuma’s couch. It’s always been Hisoka’s favorite, even before they were dating, something Azuma takes great pride in. Not just any couch is comfortable to nap on, after all. Hisoka leaves just enough room for Azuma to snuggle in next to him, their bodies fitting neatly together from nearly two years of practice, and Azuma strokes Hisoka’s hair, marveling as he always does at how thick and soft it is despite Hisoka’s blatant lack of hair products. Really, a man who uses two-in-one shampoo should not have such nice hair, but Hisoka has always defied nature and logic. 

“Are you excited to see what Homare does with his roomba?” Azuma whispers. 

“I guess,” Hisoka mumbles. 

He’s probably too sleepy to talk about it further, and the solid, warm weight of him is soaking into Azuma, coaxing him to sleep as well. He nuzzles his face into Hisoka’s shoulder, pressing a kiss to the side of his neck, and he feels Hisoka make a soft, pleased noise. Then all he hears is the quiet in-and-out of Hisoka’s breathing, until he joins Hisoka in sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> am i satisfied with this fic? ... no. but it has been sitting essentially finished in my wip folder for several months and i wish to set it free - like a roomba placed on the floor, the world wide open to explore - as long as there's nothing too large on the floor, no walls to bump, etc... 
> 
> my [twitter](http://twitter.com/futarinoshoutai), if you want


End file.
